60 Cybersecurity Predictions For 2019

Gil Press - Forbes

Computer hacking conceptGETTY

I’ve always been a loner, avoiding crowds as much as possible, but last Friday I found myself in the company of 500 million people. The breach of the personal accounts of Marriott and Starwood customers forced us to join the 34% of U.S. consumers who experienced a compromise of their personal information over the last year. Viewed another way, there were 2,216 data breaches and more than 53,000 cybersecurity incidents reported in 65 countries in the 12 months ending in March 2018.

How many data breaches we will see in 2019 and how big are they going to be?

Just like last year, this year’s 60 predictions reveal the state-of-mind of key participants in the cybersecurity industry (on the defense team, of course) and cover all that’s hot today. Topics include the use and misuse of data; artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning as a double-edge sword helping both attackers and defenders; whether we are going to finally “get over privacy” or see our data finally being treated as a private and protected asset; how the cloud changes everything and how connected and moving devices add numerous security risks; the emerging global cyber war conducted by terrorists, criminals, and countries; and the changing skills and landscape of cybersecurity.

It’s the data, stupid

“While data has created an explosion of opportunities for the enterprise, the ability to collaborate on sensitive data and take full advance of artificial intelligence opportunities to generate insights is currently inhibited by privacy risks, compliance and regulation controls. The security challenge of ‘data in use’ will be overcome by applying the most universal truth of all-time—mathematics—to facilitate data collaboration without the need for trust from either side. For example, ‘zero-knowledge proof’ allows proof of a claim without revealing any other information beyond what is claimed. Software that is beyond trust and based on math will propel this trend forward”—Nadav Zafrir, CEO,Team8

“IT security in 2019 is no longer going to simply be about protecting sensitive data and keeping hackers out of our systems. In this day and age of big data and artificial intelligence—where cooperation on data can lead to enormous business opportunities and scientific and medical breakthroughs—security is also going have to focus on enabling organizations to leverage, collaborate on and monetize their data without being exposed to privacy breaches, giving up their intellectual property or having their data misused. Cybersecurity alone is not going to be enough to secure our most sensitive data or our privacy. Data must be protected and enforced by technology itself, not just by cyber or regulation. The very technology compromising our privacy must itself be leveraged to bring real privacy to this data-driven age”—Rina Shainski, Co-founder and Chairwoman, Duality Technologies

AI is a dual-use technology

“AI-driven chatbots will go rogue. In 2019, cyber criminals and black hat hackers will create malicious chatbots that try to socially engineer victims into clicking links, downloading files or sharing private information. A hijacked chatbot could misdirect victims to nefarious links rather than legitimate ones. Attackers could also leverage web application flaws in legitimate websites to insert a malicious chatbot into a site that doesn’t have one. In short, next year attackers will start to experiment with malicious chatbots to socially engineer victims. They will start with basic text-based bots, but in the future, they could use human speech bots to socially engineer victims over the phone or other voice connections”—Corey Nachreiner, CTO, WatchGuard Technologies

“While next-gen technology like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) are transforming many enterprises for the better, they’ve also given rise to a new breed of ‘smart’ attacks. The ability to scale and carry out attacks is extremely enticing to cybercriminals, including use of intelligent malware. The rise in next-gen threats means that security professionals must be extra vigilant with detection and training against these threats, while also adopting new methods of automated prevention methods”—John Samuel, Senior Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, CGS

“Cyber defenders have been researching and working on their machine learning/AI/deep Learning for a long time. We expect over the next 5 years that these technologies will also empower adversaries to create more powerful and elusive attacks through a new generation of tools, tactics and procedures. While AI/ML-savvy offensive cybercriminals are in their infancy, this is like any other business. They will invest in whatever provides them the greatest return. Unlike defenders, those on the offense are willing to collaborate and share innovation freely, which could increase rapid development and innovation”—David Capuano, CMO and VP Sales, BluVector

“Automation is the name of the game in security and machine learning is here to help. AI is all about automating expert systems, and security is all about experts answering some form of the question: ‘Does this matter? Does this alert matter? Is this vulnerability risky?’ Machine learning will help filter out the noise, so that the limited number of practitioners out there can use their time most efficiently”—Michael Roytman, chief data scientist, Kenna Security

“Recent updates to exploit kits, specifically natural language and artificial intelligence capabilities, has made the automation of highly convincing and unique social engineering emails a very simple process. Meaning, an attacker can upload a file with one million email addresses and can automate the creation of effective and unique phishing messages to send out to victims”—Brian Hussey, VP of Cyber Threat Detection and Response, Trustwave SpiderLabs

“When it comes to using AI in cybersecurity, be wary. AI offers companies huge potential, but it is a largely untapped area. If you do plan to implement it, do a proof of concept to make sure that it integrates into your company’s environment, ensuring that you’re getting the maximum value”—Joan Pepin, CISO and VP of Operations, Auth0

“The focus on artificial intelligence in cybersecurity has led to an arms war, with vendors ratcheting up claims about the number of models or features to sensational levels. In 2019, the focus will shift from quantity to quality of features. Both vendors and their users will recognize that fewer, more precise features, can improve threat detection rates, while ensuring virtually zero false positives”—Adrien Gendre, North American CEO, Vade Secure

“As AI-enabled apps continue to proliferate, companies will face a rise in accidental vulnerabilities. Expect to hear about more breaches that aren’t a result of a hack, but can be mapped back to developers leaving large data pools (which power AI-enabled applications) accidentally unprotected. Companies need to be vigilant when working with large data pools, especially customer data, that feed AI in services like Amazon, Facebook and Google, and always double check their configurations”—Alex Smith, Director of Security Products, Intermedia

“With fraud attack rates expected to continue to increase in 2019, costing e-commerce retailers billions of dollars, AI is poised to play a huge role in stopping bad actors in real-time before they strike. Artificial intelligence and machine learning, enhanced by human research, have the ability to protect online merchants from abuse at both the account level and the point of transaction. AI-driven solutions are becoming a necessity because they instantly prevent fraud, enabling retailers to scale and keep up with the e-commerce giants without sacrificing the consumer experience. Finally, fraud prevention models that use AI can be personalized based on a nuanced understanding of each merchant’s specific pain points and historical data”—Michael Reitblat, Co-Founder and CEO, Forter

The emerging global cyber war

“Terrorist-related groups will attack population centers with crimeware-as-a-service. While terrorist-related groups have been tormenting organizations and individuals for years, we anticipate more potentially destructive attacks in 2019. Instead of breaking systems with ransomware, adversaries will leverage new tools to conduct harmful assaults on targeted subjects and organizations. From attacks on data integrity that essentially kill computers to the point of mandatory hardware replacements, to leveraging new technology for physical assaults such as the recent drone attack in Venezuela, attack surfaces are growing and enemies will take advantage. To combat this, organizations must take inventory of their attack landscape to identify and mitigate potential threats before they are exploited. Malcolm Harkins, Chief Security and Trust Officer, Cylance

“We expect nation-state threats to increase significantly in 2019, particularly targeting critical infrastructure. Critical infrastructure systems are extremely vulnerable to both cybersecurity and physical security risks. State-sponsored threats and high-level hackers are constantly looking to gain access to the critical infrastructure of nations worldwide, with the intent of hitting some of our most valuable systems (national security, public health, emergency communications, and more)”—Mike McKee, CEO, ObserveIT

“The nature of cyberwarfare is changing. Russia has led the way in the use of targeted cyber actions as part of larger objectives, and now other nation states are looking to follow the same playbook. While a direct cyberwar is not on the horizon, there will continue to be smaller proxy cyber wars as part of regional conflicts where larger nation state actors provide material support to these smaller conflicts. These regional conflicts will be testing grounds for new tactics, techniques and procedures as larger nation states determine how cyber warfare integrates into their larger military objectives. Nation states will also start experimenting more this year in adding ‘disinformation’ campaigns as part of their cyber warfare efforts. These kinds of attacks will make true attribution more difficult”—Sean McNee, Senior Data Scientist, DomainTools

“As the cyber threat landscape intensifies, adversaries will continue to discover new avenues for attacks. Although satellites aren’t the most common attack surface, it is important for industry professionals to acknowledge the capabilities that threat actors hold over them. Security concerns continue to grow within the satellite industry, with execs even forming a government-backed clearinghouse to share information on cyber threats to space assets. From military satellites to GPS technology and even communication satellites, adversaries are able to conduct targeted attacks to gain access to these crucial systems—some of which are highly classified networks. As these threat actors refine their skills, we anticipate major attacks on satellite systems as a new form of nation-state warfare”—John Cassidy, CEO and Co-Founder,King & Union

The year of protected privacy, finally?

“Managing privacy will be the new normal, like securing data or paying taxes. Privacy will continue on a similar path as the evolution of cybersecurity. The number of breaches and privacy-related incidents will continue to rise, up and to the right. This rise will be comprised of peaks and valleys. Like with security, a standard of constant privacy will become the new normal. For example, while many organizations treated GDPR as a project, with a finite end, compliance is a continuous exercise that requires the same focus and vigilance as security or taxes”—Chris Babel, CEO, TrustArc

“Consumers will start to reclaim control and monetize their data. Ownership of customer data will transition away from businesses and back toward customers themselves, and new services will emerge that empower customers to even monetize their own personal data and rent it back to companies. Data is the fuel that powers AI, and customers will realize they have the power to drive their own AI-based experiences by reclaiming data control”—Dr. Rob Walker, vice president, decision management and analytics, Pegasystems

“GDPR was a great first step, but global regulation and governance still remain a complex web. The United States will continue to fall further and further behind in competency and international relations as our federal compliance efforts simply aren’t moving fast enough to meet worldwide requirements. Countries where privacy is prioritized and seamlessly integrated will see the most optimal growth”—Tomas Honzak, Chief Information Security Officer, GoodData

“Data protection legislation will continue to influence societal expectations on security, which will trickle down to companies and their supply chains. Consumers have always felt protective of their data, but with new legislation redefining the data landscape, consumers have grown more confident in demanding their data be treated with respect, that its uses are kept visible and clear, and that it is used only as they agreed. The pressure these new societal expectations will exert cannot be overstated, both on public-facing companies and through them all the way down their supply chains. Make no mistake, security and data handling are seen now by all successful companies to be as critical to business and contracts as confidentiality and liability limits have always been”—Geoff Forsyth, CTO, PCI Pal

“There will be a lot more focus on privacy and security of connected cars. The information from the connected car is arguably more sensitive than our credit card information – where do we go, when do we go there, when are we home, where do we shop and work, where do our kids go to school and what locations do we go to at what time. There will be breaches of this personal information and bad things that happen as a result. There will be more of the takeover scenarios where an external (bad) actor can take over the technology. This too will result in backlash and involvement of political and legal entities to begin to make laws and precedents. What can law enforcement access and discover to use for investigation purposes?”—Todd Walter, chief technologist, Teradata

“As privacy concerns grow, there will be an increasing interest in privacy-preserving machine-learning techniques that are able train accurate models without compromising privacy”—Prasad Chalasani, Chief Scientist, MediaMath

“The global regulatory environment will become more challenging as regulators and governments worldwide continue to strive to implement better data privacy protection as was done with GDPR. While this is a great progress, we’re going to see these governments counter to gain more access to information”—Phil Dunkelberger, CEO, Nok Nok Labs

“As governments implement new data privacy regulations, enterprises will increasingly adopt a ‘Privacy First’ approach to data management. However, the challenges these enterprises will face as they seek to integrate data privacy best practices into their existing applications, as well as new mobile, IoT and other applications, will be significant. Enterprises will need AI-powered, automated, outcome-driven data management solutions to address these challenges if they hope to implement strong data privacy policies without sacrificing productivity or agility”—Don Foster, senior director of worldwide solutions marketing, Commvault

“In 2019, the US government will NOT adopt any new digital privacy policies despite the recent congressional hearings with Twitter, Facebook, Google, etc.”—Kevin Lee, Trust and Safety Architect, Sift Science

The Cloud changes everything and everything is connected… and vulnerable

“Your smart fridge will start scamming you. IoT-connected appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines already produce unattended payments that the user cannot personally verify. Fraudsters see this vulnerability now and will begin to take advantage of it”—Uri Rivner, Chief Cyber Officer, BioCatch

“In 2019, the two main targets for cyber-attackers will be the cloud and user devices. Operating systems on user devices provide more functionality than ever before, making them more vulnerable and an easy target for attackers. At the same time, users will expect more flexibility and the ability to work with any OS, any application, and on any device. As organizations look provide security, privacy, and productivity, they will have to shift to a new, ‘zero trust’ device architecture”—Tal Zamir, CEO, Hysolate

“IoT, in its current state, is not secure. There are secure devices out there, but they are the exception rather than the rule. Perhaps more concerning is that there are no revolutions in IoT security on the horizon. IoT will continue to be vulnerable in 2019”—Erez Yalon, Head of Security Research, Checkmarx

“A marked shift from network security towards identity-based application security will take place next year. The cloud causes traditional control planes to become obsolete. From firewalls and IPS’s to host-based security tools, current technologies cannot be implemented in an effective and constructive manner. Application identities, in a similar process that user identity underwent in the last couple of years, will conquer the main stage”—Ran Ilany, CEO, Portshift

“With Waymo, Cruise, Uber and other autonomous vehicle industry players rushing to the market and expanding previously limited pilots to wider scale public deployments, we predict that a self-driving car used ‘in production’ will be hacked. The immediate implications are unlikely to be life-threatening, however, they will only strengthen concerns about a potential nightmare scenario like car ransomware”—Nir Gaist, CTO and co-founder, Nyotron

“Teams will shift to prioritizing cloud-delivered security solutions over traditional appliance-based point products. In addition, teams will shift to simplifying security architectures by prioritizing solutions that provide consolidated feature sets that would have traditionally required numerous separate point products. This will be driven by a vastly expanded attack surface and necessary operational efficiency for understaffed teams”—Gene Stevens, CTO & Co-Founder, ProtectWise

“From Windows to IoTs, Apple and Microsoft have invested colossal amounts in information security to make it very difficult for attackers to enter. In addition, due the accelerated growth in the number of IoT vendors and a severe lack of regulation, significant investments are now being made in developing breakthrough attack capabilities in this field”—Eilon Lotem, CTO, SAM Seamless Network

“IoT-enabled device innovation will continue to outpace the security built into those devices and Federal government regulation will continue to inadequately define the laws and fines required to affect change. State-level regulations will be enacted to improve the situation, but will likely fall short in impact, and in many cases, only result in a false sense of consumer confidence with respect to the security of these devices”—Carolyn Crandall, Chief Deception Officer, Attivo Networks.

“Cyber breaches will have increased impacts on corporate stock prices, especially in the technology and cyber security sector. The rate at which we’re seeing attacks, and the breadth of the impact is alarming but as of yet haven’t had a large impact on stock prices. However, this will soon change as organizations complete their digital transformation and move to the cloud. Once this happens, a breach is going to have a larger impact on their revenue and as a result a detrimental effect on stock price. Another impact of companies moving operations and revenue to the cloud is we’re going to see more criminal and state organizations going after cybersecurity companies to infiltrate code in their distribution base or take them offline to get to the corporations themselves”—Stan Lowe, Global CISO, Zscaler

“Consumers and legislators alike are increasingly aware of the cyber risks facing the automotive industry as vehicles become increasingly connected. Due to the growing number of susceptible entry points in today’s connected cars, it is only a matter of time before the automotive industry experiences further significant cyber-related product recalls. Moving into 2019, it is imperative that OEM and Tier 1 suppliers ensure robust cyber security protections over the course of the vehicle lifespan. A multi-layered, end-to-end security solution that enables over the air system update capabilities will become the norm. Now is the time for automakers to be proactive and take the wheel in deploying effective solutions for automotive cyber security”—Yoni Heilbronn, CMO, Argus Cyber Security

“Cloud and DevOps transformations will rapidly gain pace in 2019, increasing the risk at the web application layer for enterprises. The reason for this increase is simple: the application layer used to be mostly static assets like marketing websites, but flash forward to today, it is now often the primary way an enterprise interacts with their customers (via full featured web applications or APIs that back mobile apps). This massive shift in functionality comes an equally massive shift in risk. The number one lesson for CISOs is that the transformation to cloud and DevOps will be successful if you can shift your security program from being a blocker to an enabler and focus on making your application and DevOps teams security self-sufficient”—Zane Lackey, Co-Founder and CSO, Signal Sciences

“Endpoint security will be redefined by detection and response features (EDR), plus managed detection and response (MDR) services. Endpoint prevention (EPP) has been king of the hill for years, now more than 80% of these solutions fall behind on requirements to provide a combined prevention, detection, investigation, response, system management, and security hygiene as a solution set via a single agent for Windows, macOS and Linux systems. Less than 20% of organizations have the resources and skills for mature EDR solutions which will drive the need for MDR services to the majority of companies, even more so for 24/7 coverage”—Tom Clare, Senior Product Manager, Fidelis Cybersecurity

“With IoT growth posing huge unknown risks to enterprises with the introduction of 5G, businesses will increasingly need to invest in both technology and employee training in order to prepare for the next generation threat landscape. What’s more is that 5G will not only give rise to new threats, but it will also provide cyber criminals with new opportunities to carry out attacks that we have seen grow in popularity over the years with greater force and impact. With this in mind, even an organization that ‘does everything right’ to combat threats posed by 5G could still be impacted just as easily as those that are less security savvy”—James Willett, Vice President of Technology, Neustar

“As IoT innovation continues to blossom, more and more IoT devices will continue to get involved in DDoS attacks in 2019. Routers and cameras are the major types of IoT devices involved in DDoS attacks, with routers making up 69.7% of IoT devices exploited to launch DDoS attacks, and 24.7% of cameras in 2017. This is because a great number of routers and web cameras have been introduced into production and living environments, with no sufficient security measures enforced. We have every reason to believe that attacks leveraging the IoT will become more diverse in the future”—Guy Rosefelt, Director of Product management for Threat Intelligence & Web Security, NSFOCUS

“With the number of IoT technologies in the workplace beginning to outnumber conventional IT assets, there is an ever-increasing probability that these devices will be used as entry point by malicious actors to further compromise corporations for data breaches. Expect in 2019 to see this come to reality and several breaches will be directly tied to installed IoT technology”—Deral Heiland, IoT Research Lead, Rapid7

“Industrial control systems are the wild-west of cybersecurity at the moment. These systems control factories, buildings, utilities, etc. Most systems have little-to-no protection, and best practices are still being adopted very slowly. They also represent extremely high-value targets, especially from a strategic point of view. A few new companies have entered the landscape, but it is still an extremely young industry”—Bryan Becker, application security researcher, WhiteHat Security

“At a time where nearly every device is connected to the internet, vendors should be taking security seriously. Too many of these products, toys, and phone apps that connect to the cloud in an insecure or unencrypted fashion and are at risk. Security issues have been plaguing the IoT market from the very beginning and it will only continue to exacerbate in 2019. IoT manufacturers will continue to race to introduce new products before their competitors bypassing secure coding practices resulting in products that add risk to corporate environments”—Karl Sigler, Threat Intelligence Manager, Trustwave SpiderLabs

“It’s important to consider the role of certificates in a world of connected devices. Nations (and more U.S. states) will follow California’s lead and enact legislation requiring security for IoT networks. This is particularly important for the healthcare, transportation, energy, and manufacturing sectors, which face the highest risk. The legislation stops short of prescribing strong forms of authentication—but thankfully, consortium groups such as the Open Connectivity Foundation and AeroMACS have championed the use of strong certificate-based authentication in their best practice standards for IoT—Damon Kachur, Vice President of IoT, Sectigo

“It may not seem like a big deal for an attacker to compromise your smart-lights, but those can connect to your smart home management device (e.g., Google Home, Amazon Echo), and from there propagate throughout both your physical and notional personal networks. And those networks can be tied to even larger ones that could result in high-profile DDoS attacks. Every added device is an added attack surface, and we’re in for a very rude awakening in the near future”—Ken Underhill, Master Instructor, and Joe Perry, Director of Research, Cybrary

Cybersecurity skill set transformation

“As IT organizations embrace public cloud environments, the threat of cyber-attacks and malicious attempts is a growing phenomenon. However, a gap still exists between the industry’s needs and what can be achieved with the available workforce. As cloud increasingly becomes a part of every IT environment, 2019 will be a key year for re-skilling the workforce, educating new talent and making the right moves to face the cyber challenge”—Avishai Sharlin, General Manager, Amdocs Technology

“The role of CISO will become intertwined with CTO. Security will need to integrate into the operations of a business if it is to become an enabler rather than a blocker of innovation. The same can be said for the blurred lines between the roles of the CISO and CTO. We have seen time and again the c-suite take the brunt of the fallout following high-profile security breaches – where the buck used to stop long before the CEO, the fallout from a security breach increasingly takes senior management along with the security and teaching teams. As a result, the distinction between the traditional roles of the CISO and CTO will become yet more gray next year”—Ivan Novikov, CEO, Wallarm

“Security is increasingly starting at the developer level, a trend that will only grow next year. As an industry, we’ve realized that security should lie at the heart of any digital transformation initiative and should never be an afterthought but built-in by design. The code should be secure, as well as the design and processes. DevSecOps should be applied for applications as well as the cloud, infrastructure and work with partners. Organizations will look to create more security ambassadors at the developer level next year who can advocate for employee awarenessaround the individual’s role in overall security”—Brent Schroeder, CTO Americas, SUSE

“In 2018, cybersecurity was more widely accepted as a board level topic and senior executives became more aware about its impact on achieving business goals and brand protection. Looking toward 2019, boards will want to see objective measurement and validation of program effectiveness, and will continue to bring on independent cybersecurity advisors or add team members with experience in cybersecurity, putting more pressure on CISOs. As a result, the effectiveness of cybersecurity programs will rely more and more on CISOs and their ability to partner with the board and communicate security needs to them. CISOs that can communicate a clear strategy and a measurable plan will have increased support, as well as funding for key initiatives”—Andrew Howard, CTO, Kudelski Security

“It’s no surprise that we are currently in a massive deficit of qualified cybersecurity talent. In 2019, we will see a more modern approach to recruiting and retention in the cybersecurity workforce to fill this void and create more diversity. We will see an uptick in apprenticeship programs, more diverse training, recruiting practices and federal funding to help bridge the enormous talent and diversity gap the industry has today“—Jason Albuquerque, CISO, Carousel Industries

The ever-evolving cybersecurity landscape

“The security industry tends to look at future trends as monumental shifts in attack methodologies, security technologies, or predictions. In reality, shifts in attack methodologies, security technologies, and observations tend to be incremental. Spending 20% of your time enhancing controls on the security essentials can easily yield 80% of your security improvements. The remaining time should be spent on exploring more advanced technologies that can help fill some of the more niche gaps in your security program. In the coming year, shifts in attacks will be incremental if the same old attacks continue to work as they have in the past”—Jason Rebholz, Senior Director at Gigamon

“In 2019, we will see advances in mobile biometric sensors. The industry has dipped its toe in the water in regards to fingerprint sensors being placed underneath phone screens as a solution to eliminate the “home button,” expect to see these screen sensors cannonball into becoming the norm. We may even see Samsung extend their capability with Iris beyond phone unlock and Samsung apps. There will be a battle as to which biometric is best, face or fingerprint, with focus on usability rather than performance rates, ultimately this will come down to user preference as to which is more convenient for individuals and fits better with their use cases”—John Callahan, CTO, Veridium

“The demand for affordable, managed security service providers will increase dramatically in 2019 due to a rise in attacks on small and medium sized businesses as a result of successful monetization of ransomware, crimeware and extortion by criminal organizations. With the shortage of available security professionals in the workforce, one of the only places SMB’s will be able to turn to in 2019 are MSSPs”—Sharon Reynolds, Chief Information Security Officer, Omnitracs

”In 2019, healthcare organizations will be the number one target for attackers. The evolution of attacks has made it much harder to secure the industry, creating and growing an entire ecosystem that lends itself to multiple forms of fraud that the attacker can profit off of. For example, in healthcare, when protected health information (PHI) is stolen, attackers are able to steal identities, gaining access to medical information, which the attacker either uses or sells to then obtain prescriptions to be traded or sold illegally”—Bob Adams, cybersecurity specialist, Mimecast

“New, high-profile breaches will push the security industry to finally solve the username/password problem. The ineffective username/password conundrum has plagued consumers and businesses for years. There are many solutions out there—asymmetric cryptography, biometrics, blockchain, hardware solutions, etc.—but so far, the security industry has not been able to settle on a standard to fix the problem. In 2019, we will see a more concerted effort to replace the password solution all together”—Marcin Kleczynski, Founder and CEO,Malwarebytes

“In 2019 we will see an evolution in the two-factor authentication (2FA) process that directly addresses some of the most discussed fraud attacks. It’s a documented fact that the use of 2FA to stop unauthorized account access has exponentially decreased account takeover fraud around the globe, but as fraudsters have evolved, so too must the techniques used to combat them. The increasing prevalence of SIM swap fraud and porting fraud (where attackers take over an end-user phone number so they can intercept one-time passcodes) has led to more collaboration between online businesses and mobile network operators, who can tell those businesses (in real-time) when a SIM swap or porting change has occurred. What we will see as 2019 unfolds is the use of that data to augment 2FA, which will ultimately ensure the continued growing adoption of this important security step by both businesses and their users”—Stacy Stubblefield, Co-Founder and Chief Innovation Officer, TeleSign

“Year-end cyber predictions often focus on specific threat categories and whether or not to expect an increase or decrease in their activity. 2019, however, promises a more fundamental shift in the cyberthreat landscape, for example the impact of social media as an exploding vector for malicious activities and the implications for businesses protecting their assets. Cybersecurity is not an IT problem, it is far wider than just ‘computers’ and the threats ahead in 2019 will make this painfully obvious”—Raj Samani, Chief Scientist and McAfee Fellow, McAfee

“Fraud attacks continue to rise, and we can expect to see them increase in volume up to 2-3X in the coming year. In addition to an increase number of attacks, we anticipate cyber criminals will leverage new tactics to fool retailers and consumers. We will continue to see them utilizing compromised data obtained from data breaches, but beyond that we can anticipate the use of account take over efforts like attacking small and medium-sized online merchants that don’t have proper eCommerce fraud risk technologies, and attacking online merchants with high speed velocity, identity takeover, and brute force high volume attempts”—Steven Gray, Head of Payments, Tax and Fraud, Radial

“In 2019, there will be continued consolidationof companies in the security sector, especially for those that have developed technologies that relate to Digital Identities (DIs), including the on-boarding of individuals behind the DIs, the authentication of the individuals behind the DIs (MFA), and the continual management of privileges and access (IAM)”—Todd Shollenbarger, Chief Global Strategist, Veridium

“Small organizations are finally realizing that they need to be as prepared as large organizations when it comes to cybersecurity, making it no longer an IT problem but a larger business challenge within every organization. Additionally, we will see small businesses’ approach to cybersecurity impacting larger organizations through the supply chain vector. Hackers will take advantage of smaller organizations, which often fuel larger business’ supply chains, because they typically have security vulnerabilities that can be more readily exploited than larger ‘targeted’ companies”—Brian NeSmith, CEO and co-founder, Arctic Wolf Networks

“Because security has not been built into established industries like utilities, these sectors are an easy target across the globe and a prime mark for attackers looking to engage in cyber warfare. While their vulnerability has been well-documented, I believe the industry won’t take the threat seriously until something significant occurs—but by then, it will be too late. As we head into 2019, expect this threat to intensify until it finally boils over and results in action. By 2023, Threat X predicts there will be a major attack on a US utility that will finally force the industry to address these vulnerabilities”—Bret Settle, CEO, Threat X

“Risk management is going to become an extremely critical topic for both the public and private sector next year. As a nation, we are facing complex geopolitical issues and state-sponsored attacks targeting our businesses and government on an enormous scale. Large financial institutions and Silicon Valley companies have already experienced billions of dollars in losses due to decisions being made without effective Enterprise Risk Management. Data is both an asset and a liability and next year we are going to see the regulatory environment become even more complex around data governance, which will see Enterprise Risk Management become a huge priority for the c-suite and board”—David Pigott, Chief Compliance Officer, Neustar